Appendix F : Australian classification of local governments

The Australian Classification of Local Governments (ACLG) was first published in September 1994 and has proved a useful way to categorise local governments across Australia. The ACLG categorises councils using the population, the population density and the proportion of the population that is classified as urban for the council.

The local governments included in the classification system are
those that receive general purpose financial assistance grants as defined under
the Local Government (Financial Assistance) Act 1995. Therefore, bodies,
declared by the Commonwealth Minister on the advice of the State Minister to
be local governing bodies for the purposes of the Act, are included in the ACLG.
These include community councils. However, county councils, voluntary regional
organisations of councils and the Australian Capital Territory are excluded.

The classification system involves three steps. Each step allocates
a prefix (letter/s of the alphabet) to develop a three-letter identifier for
each class of local government (there are 22 categories). So, for example, a
medium-sized council in a rural agricultural area would be classified as RAM
- rural, agricultural, medium. If it was remote, however, it would be classified
as RTM. Table F.1 provides information on the structure of the classification
system.

Table F.2 provides details of the number of councils at June 2003,
by ACLG category and by State and Table F.3 provides a full listing of all councils
by classification group by State. As there were no changes to the ACLG reported
for councils in 2002-03, there is no table in this year's report giving changes
to council classifications.

Local government grants commissions do not take the ACLG classification
of a council into account when determining the level of general purpose grant.
Councils are, however, grouped by ACLG in Appendix D of the National Report
to allow a comparison of grant outcomes for similarly classified councils.

Background

Developers of the system recognised that, with so many different
types of local government in Australia, and with changing population distribution
patterns, there will be occasions where a council's profile does not fully match
the characteristics of the class into which it has been placed. When this occurs,
a local government may be reallocated to a classification that more accurately
reflects its circumstances. In the event, less than a dozen councils have been
reallocated over the period since 1994 and some of those, such as Surf Coast
in Victoria, were in transition to being reallocated to a new classification
because of population growth.

Further details of the classification system can be found in the
original report on the ACLG (Department of Housing and Regional Development,
1994).

Table F.1 Structure of the classification
system

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Identifiers

Category

URBAN (U)

Capital City (CC)

UCC

Population more than 20 000

Metropolitan Developed (D)
Part of an urban centre of more than 1 000 000 or population density more
than 600/sq km

Small (S)
Medium (M)
Large (L)
Very Large (V)

up to 30 000
30 001-70 000
70 001-120 000
more than 120 000

UDS
UDM
UDL
UDV

OR

Population density more than 30 persons per sq km

Regional Towns/City (R)
Part of an urban centre with population less than 1 000 000 and predominantly
urban in nature

Small (S)
Medium (M)
Large (L)
Very Large (V)

up to 30 000
30 001-70 000
70 001-120 000
more than 120 000

URS
URM
URL
URV

OR

90 per cent or more of LGA population is urban

Fringe (F)
A developing LGA on the margin of a developed or regional urban centre

Small (S)
Medium (M)
Large (L)
Very Large (V)

up to 30 000
30 001-70 000
70 001-120 000
more than 120 000

UFS
UFM
UFL
UFV

RURAL (R)

An LGA with population less than 20 000

Significant Growth (SG)
Average annual population growth more than 3 per cent, population more
than 5 000 and not remote

Not applicable

RSG

AND

Population density less than 30 persons per sq km

Agricultural (A)

Small (S)
Medium (M)
Large (L)
Very Large (V)

up to 2 000
2 001-5 000
5 001-10 000
10 001-20 000

RAS
RAM
RAL
RAV

AND

Less than 90 per cent of LGA population is urban

Remote (T)

Extra Small (X)
Small (S)
Medium (M)
Large (L)

up to 400
401-1 000
1 001-3 000
3 001-20 000

RTX
RTS
RTM
RTL

Table F.2 Number of councils by ACLG by
category and by State, June 2003

State

NSW

Vic

Qld

WA

SA

Tas

NT1

Total

Urban Capital City (UCC)

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

7

Urban Development Small (UDS)

3

1

0

12

2

0

0

18

Urban Development Medium (UDM)

15

2

1

3

7

0

0

28

Urban Development Large (UDL)

6

9

0

2

5

0

0

22

Urban Development Very Large (UDV)

8

10

1

1

0

0

0

20

Urban Regional Small (URS)

12

13

43

9

7

5

4

93

Urban Regional Medium (URM)

21

8

4

2

0

3

0

38

Urban Regional Large (URL)

2

3

4

0

0

0

0

9

Urban Regional Very Large (URV)

3

1

2

0

0

0

0

6

Urban Fringe Small (UFS)

0

1

3

1

1

1

1

8

Urban Fringe Medium (UFM)

3

3

3

4

2

0

0

15

Urban Fringe Large (UFL)

1

3

3

4

0

0

0

11

Urban Fringe Very Large (UFV)

7

3

2

1

1

0

0

14

Rural Significant Growth (RSG)

0

1

4

7

0

0

0

12

Rural Agriculture Small (RAS)

4

0

7

53

11

2

0

77

Rural Agricultural Medium (RAM)

38

0

26

17

11

3

0

95

Rural Agricultural Large (RAL)

26

8

14

2

9

9

0

68

Rural Agricultural Very Large (RAV)

20

12

14

2

11

5

1

65

Rural Remote Extra Small (RTX)

3

0

4

6

4

0

28

45

Rural Remote Small (RTS)

0

0

6

3

0

0

21

30

Rural Remote Medium (RTM)

1

0

11

6

1

0

9

28

Rural Remote Large (RTL)

1

0

4

6

1

0

0

12

Total

175

79

157

142

74

29

65

721

Note: 1 Excludes Northern Territory Trust Account.

Table F.3 ACLG category listing of local governments
by State, June 2003